The present invention pertains to methods and apparatus for presenting a combination of audio and visual information by a lecturer and generally intended to be recorded, displayed, transmitted or otherwise broadcast.
Traditionally presenting information in various settings, such as education, have required some method and apparatus for presenting both audio and visual information by a lecturer. Lecturers in higher education of the sciences are an example of one such application. One of the oldest apparatus to accomplish this task is the blackboard, believed to have first been introduced by James Pillans, headmaster and geography teacher at the Old High School in Edinburg, Scotland in about 1801. Headmaster Pillans' innovative use of slate sheets upon which he could present visual information by writing upon the slate with chalk was rapidly adopted by many educational institutions. In less than a decade, by 1809, it is believed most public schools in major metropolitan areas generally included blackboards although the term “blackboard” itself is not considered to have been generally adopted until about 1815.
The next advancement in presenting both audio and visual information by a lecturer is believed to have occurred in the early 1960's when the one or more sheets of slate forming the conventional blackboard were replaced by what came to be called a “greenboard” comprising a steel plate coated with a porcelain-based enamel. This was considered an improvement because chalk powder could be more easily removed from the greenboard compared to a sheet of slate and because the green color was considered more pleasing and easier on the eyes than the stark black or dark grey of conventional blackboards. The greenboard was also regarded as more durable than the relatively fragile sheets of slate used in connection with conventional blackboards and lighter in weight, thereby reducing shipping costs.
The use of chalk was eventually eliminated in some settings with the introduction in the 1980's of the so-called “whiteboard” comprising dry erase board used in combination with ink markers. By the mid 1990's many colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere had switched entirely over to the use of whiteboards.
All of these various blackboards, greenboards and whiteboards, however, suffer from one unavoidable and highly noticeable disadvantage; the lecturer has to turn their back on their audience in order to write visual information upon the board. It is estimated their audience sees only the posterior of the lecturer for up to half the time the lecturer is making their presentation. The present invention solves this two hundred-year-old problem.